Fall 2024 Festivals

Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.

Throughout the fall festival season, we'll be publishing a wide array of interviews, dispatches, and ballots from Venice, Toronto, New York, and elsewhere. Watch this space!

Interviews

“The Plasticity of Blood: Albert Serra on Afternoons of Solitude” by Ela Bittencourt

^{The Catalan filmmaker’s San Sebastian prizewinner locates a paradoxical pageantry in bullfighting.}

“Sweetbitter Paradox: Matías Piñeiro on You Burn Me” by Laura Staab

^{Cesare Pavese, Sappho, and dick doodles are entwined in “the mnemotechnic game” of the director’s latest.}

“Through the Fog: Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Cloud” by Jordan Cronk

^{The auteur’s actioner finds an internet reseller beset by his customers.}

“Inside Man: Guy Maddin on Rumours” by Ryan Akler-Bishop

^{“A filmmaker gets to be young until they die of old age.”}

“All Is Full of Grace: Miguel Gomes on Grand Tour” by Jordan Cronk

^{“I think we can shoot in every country—we can shoot on the moon.”}

“Perfect Storms: Alexandra Simpson on No Sleep Till” by Leonardo Goi

^{The director discusses her feature debut, a dreamlike and elegiac portrait of small-town America.}

“Rage Against the Dying of the Light” by Leonardo Goi

^{From Cloud to Baby Invasion, some of the festival’s early standouts felt true to our moment of anxious doomscrolling and paranoia.}

“Empathy Machines” by Leonardo Goi

^{Some of the festival’s best—Familiar Touch, The Room Next Door, April, The Brutalist—share a belief in cinema’s power to mesmerize.}

From Toronto

“Hunt or Be Hunted” by Chloe Lizotte

^{Saturday Night and The Apprentice fade into the forgettable “landmarks” on Festival Street, but Friendship dares to be weird.}

“For an Ad Hoc Cinema: TIFF Wavelengths 2024” by Michael Sicinski

^{The program remains a lodestar of auteurist cinema even as it is asked to make do with less.}

“The Cinema Is a House” by Daniel Kasman

^{A film builds a space in which the audience can live.}

“The Future of an Illusion” by Phil Coldiron

^{In the New York Film Festival’s Currents slate, what do novelty and innovation amount to if they don’t respond to the present moment?}

Festival Ballots

^{Our trusted critics share their selections from recent festivals across various categories.}